Ariel Whiteside (Mainstream Universe)
Current Universe. With her psionic abilities manifesting at the age of four, Ariel (born Ashanti) was forcibly taken by HYDRA operatives and taken to one of their cells on the East Coast. Taking them to be her family, she underwent gene therapy from the age of 11 up until her rescue three years later. Honing her telekinetic skills at the X-Gene Academy, Professor Xavier saw her true potential which led to her becoming an X-Man for a time, namely when it came to strenuous astral projection missions. Later, Ariel helps teach new students the skills they'll need to be able to learn how to control their powers at the X-Gene facility. Ariel has been classified as a Beta Level Mutant. Abilities Class: Street Level+ Origin: Marvel Comics Classification: Mutant Age: Mid 20's Powers and Abilities: Lust inducement, portal creation, flight, forcefield projection, telepathy, fear empowerment, telekinesis, illusion casting, hypnosis, able to interface with another's mind and reshape it to a certain extent. Weaknesses: Human vulnerabily to injury if unshielded. Strength: She has strength equivalent to that of a normal woman who strength trains semi-regularly. She can lift cars, smaller trucks and other items up to five tons in weight, as well as destroy concrete walls with the power of her mind. Destructive Capacity: Wall/Tree Level+ Range: Universal Speed: Human. Peak Human Reaction times (faster if Mind-Reading during combat). Durability: Probably Small Building level with her psychic shielding. Otherwise human. Stamina: Peak Human Standard Equipment: None Intelligence: Informed strategist, adept seductress, skilled problem solver, competent swordsman, capable hand-to-hand fighter. Psychology Ariel unquestionably has an anti-social personality disorder. Having spent so much time with HYDRA and other mutants, Ariel is out of touch with society and doesn't think twice about using her powers on someone to meet her own ends. She also suffers from hypersexuality due to her hormone-replacement therapy. Biography Ariel's Pink Shielded Costume.jpg|Ariel in her first appearance. She has pink eyes, blonde hair and a sun kissed complexion. This changes, due to circumstances. Ariel.png|Ariel in her second phase. Note the red hair, yellow eyes and the slightly more buxom figure. Ariel - Snake Eyes.jpg|Ariel in her third phase. Notice the blue eyes, sallow cheeks and dyed blonde hair, in addition to her carrying an assault rifle at all times. Ariel - 4th Form.jpg|Ariel in her fourth appearance. She now has dark skin and green eyes, as well as the softer face of her former iterations. Ariel's life began with a start. Showing signs of telepathy by the age of 4, HYDRA took notice and forcibly removed her from her parents. It is unknown if her parents survived the kidnapping. Believing her to be able to be able to house the next Phoenix force through a series of costly intel, they began training Ariel in HYDRA field combatics as well as teaching her to use a variety of weaponry, namely straight swords and firearms. With this, Ariel accepted their familial importance into her heart, treating them as family as they indoctrinated her, preparing her for the scientific experimentation that it would take for her to maximize her chances to become the next host of the Phoenix force. By the age of 11, she was ready. They began altering her mutation-possible genetics through gene therapy to maximize the capabilities of her mind. Not only did this cause her excruciating pain, but it elevated her already-budding sex drive as a result. At the age of 14, the HYDRA base that they held her in was assailed by the X-Men. Ariel fought alongside her HYDRA brethren, but they swiftly succumbed to the might of the X-Men, led by Jordan Starr. X-Gene Academy Under the guidance of Headmaster Starr (himself a student of Prof. Xavier), Ariel fine-tuned her psychic ability while learning how to write. Her sex life became something of a myth on campus as her fluctuating teenage hormones got the better of her. Still, she managed to graduate from the academy and was given $5,000 to begin her new life with in the New York countryside. Modern Ariel, having known no other life than to follow orders, offered her services to help teach at the X-Gene Mutant Academy. After overcoming initial resistance, Jordan deemed her competent enough to manage a class full of adolescent teeenagers coming into their powers. On several occasions, Professor Xavier asked her for her services during open X-Men conflicts, which led to her intermittent tenure assisting the X-Men, facing astral plane enemies such as Mephisto and Blackheart, as well as physical foes like Toad, Blob and the Juggernaut. Sexuality Ariel's voracious sexual appetite has led her into a run-in with several high-caliber superheroes (most notably Johnny Storm), as well as a number of lesser-known superheroes. All but one of them succumbed to her sexual advances without so much as even a word of protest. Non-Consensual Sex and Lawsuit While aboard a secluded space station near Saturn, Ariel pulls Zachary (whom she had been talking to for weeks telepathically) through a portal after a text session. Ariel read his mind during the conversation that followed, and acting upon her desires, she assaulted him. However, when his mind went blank, she knew that something was seriously wrong and stopped, later apologizing tearfully and sending him back to Earth. From there, Jordan was asked to serve papers to Ariel that Zachary was filing a lawsuit against her. Defending her before the case as best as he could, the determined attorney Mrs. Jessica Royce legally outmaneuvered Jordan in almost every area, trying to get him to settle out of court. Ariel's life began to fall apart as the case came together and with the advice of Jordan, decided to plead no contest while they worked down her sentence. Given her tumultuous past as a 'prisoner of HYDRA suffering from PTSD' and ruling it 'a temporary lapse in sanity', they dropped having Ariel register as a sex offender and gave her six months in jail without the possibility of parole and 1,500 hours of community service. Post Release After getting out of jail, Ariel now had a chip implanted into her head and her avenues for employment had narrowed down significantly. The more she lost hope, the further into casual sex she fell. After a few months, one of her friends recommended that she go by a different name and try modeling, which proved successful. From here, she bought a new apartment and slowly began rebuilding her contacts. Meeting Zachary again, they started to build a new friendship in which they oftentimes met at Central Park during that summer month. Dieter Ariel had been looking for a new boyfriend and oftentimes threw herself onto the ground in movie-like fashion in front of men she was looking to meet. One day, Zach and Ariel's casual argument get out of hand and she decides to strip down to her underwear in Central Park to end up attracting most of the local area's attention. It was that day that she met Dieter using her tried-and-true victim method way of meeting people who were passing by. Wearing nothing but a bra and underwear, she greeted the jogging multi-billion-dollar businessman and gave her his number. Some time later, he called Ariel and they spoke briefly as he was to get on a plane and return to Switzerland to close an important pharmaceutical deal. When he got back, he took her to an opera house, out to eat and even to a posh Russian dance club that had opened in downtown New York. Things went well for the couple for two months, with Ariel revealing her powers to him. However, neither of the two involved turned out to be who they first appeared. Dieter was a Type A businessman who made a lot of money and liked to go places and spend it. Ariel was more content hanging out at home and watching TV in pajamas. This all culminated into the event that ended their relationship as she held onto him psychically and drug him into her house after misinterpreting him saying that he was going to leave when she said she didn't want to party that night. This led to him raising mutant awareness throughout Europe and ordering legislation against mutants across the world.This event started the events of Death Day. Death Day During the time Ariel and Dieter had dated, he had read enough files from over her shoulder while she was at her computer to learn valuable information about her. This was later used to learn more about the X-Gene campus while he empowered his anti-mutant marches. In the absence of headmaster Jordan Starr (pronounced dead, but really in a telepathic coma due to blunt force trauma), Ariel had resided as the headmistress of the school and ran it single-handedly. With the information, Dieter sent a strike team of rioters to the school, killing several of the students and greatly injuring her. The Phoenix Force Ariel invited Zach over to her house to hang out. His refusal to sit was based on an excuse that he had 'pulled a muscle' the day before. As Ariel held him psychically to lay him on her table to massage him, he lashed out, breaking a board in the table and shattering all of her windows before leaping out the window and getting teleported by Danielle. Angered that he had destroyed one of the only gifts she had left from Dieter, Ariel now outside, pulls Zach through a portal and punches him in the nose, spraining her wrist. While he was trying to apologize, Ariel's hair turned red as an aura of fire came to life around her, frightening all of the nearby civilians and blood started to ooze out of her eyes and nose. As she started screaming and pulling out her own hair, Zach knocks her out, administers basic CPR on her and calls the Fantastic Four for help. Bringing her back to the Baxter building, Reed Richards runs a series of tests on her that decode the signal of her optic nerve, cross-referencing that with Zach's testimony, deducing that Ariel is in fact the next carrier of the Phoenix Force. Failing to get ahold of her teacher at first, (who had put himself in solitary confinement aboard a space station for nine years while carrying the Phoenix Force) he calls back, revealing himself to be Jordan Starr, the Headmaster of the X-Gene Academy that went up in the wake of Jean Grey's death. He comes to the building quickly, to which Reed tells him his theory. After an initial resistance, Jordan agrees to take on the Phoenix Force, and to facilitate that transfer, the two are teleported to the same derelict space station that Jordan had been on before, after which the transporters are destroyed behind them. Now abandoned on the lone spaceship, Ariel and Jordan were together for the first time in five years. A week passes without incident, until Ariel tries reading over some of the e-mails Jordan has been sending out. Using telekinetic force, he pushes her back and the two begin to fight. Besting her in a short but brutal melee, Ariel unwittingly creates portals back to Earth while mentally crying out to Johnny, the exact intention that they had hoped to avoid by putting them in the satellite. Susan puts up a barrier to keep them out the best that she can, but Johnny's had enough at this point. Having no choice but to let him in, he threatens Jordan with his fire aura before he and Ariel are both forced through the only portal back to the ship. Confirming the situation had been contained with Reed, Richards uploads the coordinates to Dr. Bruce Banner's government-appointed hot lab, containing 22 SHIELD units. Ariel and Johnny are teleported there, both ordered to strip as Dr. Banner runs the tests on them. They both become infused with a painful radiation and undergo a few exercises to make sure that the Phoenix didn't bond to either of them before they are released back to New York. Relationships Recommended Readings Ariel - Ray of Hopelessness #1-2: After inviting a friend over that later damages her house, the innate rage within her calls out the Phoenix Force. After some help from a friend and the Fantastic Four, she is soon put aboard a derelict starship with her longtime friend and former mentor. These issues demonstrate Ariel's resilience to stresses as well as her relationship with Johnny Storm. Category:Mutants Category:Self-Oriented Characters